Founding

Gordon and Carole Segal opened the first Crate & Barrel store on December 7, 1962, at age 23. The 1,700-square-foot (160 m2) space in part of an old elevator factory was located at 1516 North Wells Street in the then-bohemian Old Town neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. The inspiration was their honeymoon in the Caribbean, where the Segals saw inexpensive yet tasteful European household products for sale. They became interested in providing functional yet aesthetically pleasing products to young couples just starting out. Surprised to see that European manufacturers offered many beautiful and durable products at reasonable prices, they were inspired to start their own store in the United States. The Segals started by recruiting an employee and leasing an abandoned elevator factory on Chicago's Wells Street. They traveled throughout Europe buying directly from glassblowers, ceramicists and factories making French copper pots and simple white bistro dinnerware.

The first store opened in response to a flourishing of world trade in home furnishings due to the early 1960s, round of talks about the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. The Segals sought out small European companies that were not represented in America and negotiated direct purchases from these factories that could be sold to the consumer while avoiding a wholesaler's markup. To this day, a majority of Crate & Barrel's products are direct imports from Europe, though Thai, Mexican and Indian glass and textiles can also be found in their stores.

The Segals derived the company name by the materials that they originally used to display items in their Chicago store. A friend suggested they call their company "Barrel and Crate", but Carole thought they should reverse the order of the words.[8] They turned over the crates and barrels that the merchandise came in, let the wood excelsior spill out, and stacked up the china and glass. This helped emphasize their strongest selling point, that their products were direct imports.

In 1966, Segal and the designer Lon Habkirk visited the Design Research store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which had an "enormous influence" on their retailing approach. Habkirk later remarked: "Eventually we took the whole idea and translated it into a reproducible formula."

Growth

In 1968, the Segals opened their second store in the Plaza del Lago shopping center in suburban Wilmette, Illinois, and third in Oak Brook, Illinois in 1971. Its first store outside the Chicago area opened in Chestnut Hill, MA in 1977. In 1979, it opened its second Cambridge, Massachusetts store in the building designed for the recently closed Design Research, which they had so admired.

By 1985, the chain had grown to 17 stores, and has continued to grow. In March 1995, it opened its first New York location (its 59th location), in Manhattan. After selling a majority stake to German mail order company the Otto Group in 1998, the company had financing to increase its rate of expansion. (Otto became the sole owner in 2011.) By 2002, it had grown to approximately 100 locations, and over 135 locations by late 2004.

Crate & Barrel's flagship store, located in Chicago on Michigan Avenue in the "Magnificent Mile", closed in January 2018; the building became the world’s largest Starbucks coffee roastery and retail space. Today there are 93 Crate and Barrel Stores, including 10 outlets, in the United States and Canada.

In 2019, Crate and Barrel partnered with the Cornerstone Restaurant Group to open The Table at Crate, a full-service restaurant at the Crate and Barrel Oak Brook store in Oakbrook, IL. It also acquired Hudson Grace, a boutique home decor, entertaining and gift brand based in San Francisco. Crate and Barrel plans to grow the Hudson Grace brand through retail expansion into niche markets and an invigorated online presence to engage new and existing customers across channels.

Products

CB2 in Toronto

Crate & Barrel offers a variety of "upmarket" housewares, furniture, and related merchandise. These are displayed in the "vignette" style, where items are grouped together as they might appear in the home. The company was an innovator of this style, which has since become more widely used.

Sister stores

Crate and Barrel has two sister brands. CB2 is a home furnishings division geared toward young adults created in 2000. The brand now has 15 stores across the U.S. and Canada. An additional store was planned to open in Denver in 2018.

Crate and Barrel's kids brand The Land of Nod, acquired in 2001, closed all stores by the end of Spring 2018. On March 7, 2018 Crate and Barrel launched Crate and Kids, a kids furnishings, home goods and gifts product offering launching online and in 40 stores.

In 2019, Crate and Barrel announced its acquisition of Hudson Grace, a boutique home decor, entertaining and gift brand based in San Francisco.

(Wikipedia)